Colombo's attempt to survey church lands for permanent militarisation foiled at Poonakari

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2016, 08:29 GMT]Three days after the last attempt to survey the lands belonging to 6 families and a Saiva temple at Paraman-kirray in the strategically situated Poonakari, the occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka attempted on Thursday to survey lands belonging to St. Jude's Church at Pa'l'lik-kudaa in Poonakari without prior notice. However, the Parish Priest of the church and more than 100 villagers blocked the survey department officials, who were brought to the spot with SL Navy escort, news sources in Poonakari said. In addition to the protest, the public spontaneously mobilised making a written signature campaign against the militarisation. The SL military intelligence operatives and SL Navy sailors were taking photos of the journalists who were covering the protest and recording video of the protestors in a threatening manner, news sources further said.

The lands belonging to the church already remain occupied by the SL Navy for the past 6 years. Now, the SL Navy is trying to permanently seize the lands.

Local Tamil politicians from the Tamil National Alliance and Tamil National People's Front have also extended their support to the protesting villagers.

The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has planned to grab 3,087 acres of private and permit lands in the strategically situated Poonakari in addition to already established military cantonments in Poonakari.

Poonakari is situated to the northwest of Ki'linochchi at the entrance to Jaffna Peninsula, Jaffna Lagoon and its location facing the Palk Bay and the opposite coast.

Around 6,000 Tamil families, dependent on agriculture and fishing, live in the heavily garrisoned Poonakari division where more than 30,000 Sinhala soldiers are stationed.

The SL military has also brought Sinhalese businessmen from South to Kavuthaari-munai to build hotels while blocking the Eezham Tamils from entering the area.

The Eezham Tamil legacy of Poo-nakari (meaning the town of flowers) and the region around it is of much antiquity going back to the times of proto-history and Tamil Brahmi inscriptions.

The strategic location of Poonakari have made all the European colonial powers –the Portuguese, Dutch and the English to maintain a station there.

But unlike the Sinhala colonial military of today, the European colonial powers didn’t commit a demographic genocide, as they didn’t have the human resource for it.

Two brigades (means 20,000 soldiers) plus 11 divisions (11,000 soldiers) of the genocidal Sinhala military are now stationed in Poonakari and villages around it, such as Pa’l’lik-kudaa, Pallava-raayan-kaddu, Mud-kompan, Ponnaa-ve’li, Arasa-puram, Muzhangkaa-vil, Madduvil-naadu and 4th mile-post, according to the figures collected two years ago in 2013.

The fertile lands of Poonakari, which is known for the quality of rice and rich coconut and cashew plantations, have also been snatched away from Eezham Tamils.

Colombo has deployed former LTTE members as ‘Civil Security Division’ slave workers in the farms run by the SL military.